The city of Portland and Clackamas County have agreed to pay $9.3 million to a brain-damaged woman and her 3-year-old daughter whose attorneys say were seriously hurt after a probation officer and a police officer failed to stop the driver who struck them.

The settlement came suddenly Wednesday, at about 4:45 p.m., just 15 minutes after lawyers for the city, the county and Cayla Wilson and her daughter finished closing arguments. The parties decided to settle the case rather than leave it up to the 12-person jury to decide.

The trial had lasted more than two weeks in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

The city of Portland will pay $4.5 million and Clackamas County will pay $4.8 million. The money will go for the care of Wilson and her daughter, JaiKyla.

Attorneys from the Portland firm Kafoury & McDougal had filed a $42 million suit, faulting Dawn Penberthy, a Clackamas County Community Corrections probation officer, for her lax supervision of Jack Dean Whiteaker in the months leading up to the April 15, 2010, crash.

The suit also faulted Portland police officer Devonna Dick for twice encountering Whiteaker in the hours before the crash but failing to take him into custody even though 911 callers said he was either mentally ill or high on drugs and acting strangely in outer Southeast Portland.

A few hours later, Whiteaker veered into an oncoming lane on Gresham’s Southeast Jenne Road and struck Cayla Wilson’s Buick. Wilson was about five months pregnant. JaiKyla Wilson was born about three months premature. She weighed 2 pounds and 3 ounces, suffered bleeding near her brain, a brain injury and underwent at least eight surgeries.

Wilson’s parents, Bill and Denise Wilson, sat through much of the trial.

“The parents’ lives have been consumed by taking care of their daughter 24 hours a day,” attorney Greg Kafoury said Thursday. “She needs to be rotated every two hours. She needs to be bathed. She needs to be fed five times a day. And it’s a monumental effort. And it’s taken a tremendous toll on them.

“But rather than send her to a skilled nursing facility, they want to be with their daughter. They believe she responds to her,” Kafoury said.

Although some have described Wilson, 23, as in a vegetative state during the nearly four years since the crash, her parents adamantly disagree and believe she is making progress. For example, she seems calmer when JaiKyla is near. She also can lift her left arm, and opens her mouth so her teeth can be brushed.

Attorneys for the city of Portland and Clackamas County couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

But police chief Mike Reese, who testified during trial, said in a written statement that it would have been inappropriate for the officer to arrest Whiteaker when she encountered him twice in the hours before the crash.

“In this incident, knowing what transpired later, any of us would do whatever we could to stop this traffic crash from happening," Reese said. "Our thoughts are with the Wilson family as they continue to cope with this terrible tragedy.

"Officer Devonna Dick, a 20-year-veteran of the Portland Police Bureau, is an excellent police officer who works hard to keep the peace in our community," Reese continued. "Given what she knew at the time it would have been inappropriate to arrest Mr. Whiteaker that day without probable cause."

Whiteaker had been on probation for a drug-related conviction since June 2009. But he repeatedly failed to follow the terms of his probation. Penberthy, his Clackamas County probation officer, didn't verify the phony home address Whiteaker gave as his own. Whiteaker skipped scheduled visits to the probation office, repeatedly brushed off drug treatment, lied about his employment and failed to pay more than $1,400 in court fees.

Two weeks before the crash, Whiteaker’s probation officer filled out the appropriate paperwork that could have led to his revocation, but by then, it was too late. Probation officers didn’t know where Whiteaker was.

On April 15, 2010, he was high on meth when he crashed into Wilson. Hours earlier, Dick, the Portland police officer, responded to two 9-1-1 calls. A Blockbuster video manager reported that Whiteaker -- a mentally ill man in a black Jeep Wrangler -- was acting strangely and harassing customers near Southeast 174th Avenue and Powell Boulevard.

Dick spoke to him. His license was suspended but he was not in his Jeep, so she didn't believe she had probable cause to arrest him. What's more, information that Penberthy had revoked his probation had not shown up yet in the data system available to Portland police officers.

A short while later, Dick again encountered Whiteaker, after responding to another report that Whiteaker had been looking into a woman's window, running through yards and hopping fences. He was hiding in some bushes when Dick found him, and she described him as "out of it."

Nonetheless, she let him go.

The trial shined a light on the deficiencies of overloaded parole and probation departments -- which have criticized for having more offenders than they can adequately supervise. The trial also illuminated, Wilson's attorneys say, the inability of police to handle mentally ill or drugged-up people who are threatening members of the public.

The settlement comes with no agreement that the city or county will change any practices.

"The money sends the message," Kafoury said. "The money is the message."

It's rare for a probation department -- and even more rare for a police agency -- to be sued for inaction by one of its officers. What's more, Wednesday's settlement is the largest against a public-safety agency in Oregon, as far as Kafoury knows.

In 1991, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the estates of two brothers, ages 6 and 8, could sue probation officials after Donna Shonkwiler, who was driving with heroin and cocaine in her system, struck them as they walked along the shoulder of a Beaverton road.

Shonkwiler had been convicted in Multnomah County of drug possession. While on probation, her probation officer failed to report to a judge that Shonkwiler had admitted she was still using heroin. The probation officer also knew that Shonkwiler regularly drove in the days before she struck the group of children, killing brothers Carlos Rojano Perez and Marco Zavalas Rojano.

Among the highest profile suits since: The family of the late Melissa Bittler sued Multnomah County for failing to keep Ladon Stephens off the streets. Bittler, 14, was on her way to school in 2001 when Ladon Stephens pulled her into a neighbor's backyard, sexually assaulted her and choked her to death.

Stephens also raped three girls and his girlfriend's 24-year-old cousin while on post-prison supervision, failing polygraph tests and being passed between half a dozen post-prison supervision officers.

Multnomah County settled the suit by paying $150,000 to Bittler's family.

Check back later at OregonLive.com to read more details about the settlement.